Warren Buffett Called His $31,500 Home His 3rd Best Investment After Wedding Rings — But Admitted He'd Have Made 'Far More Money' If He'd Rented
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If Warren Buffett had been chasing profit with his real estate decisions, he says he would’ve done things very differently. But the man known for buying stocks, not mansions, has never cared much for square footage. In fact, he’s been living in the same modest Omaha home since 1958 — a five-bedroom stucco house he bought for $31,500. That was long before he became one of the wealthiest people on Earth, with a net worth now hovering around $151 billion.
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In his 2010 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Buffett famously called the home “the third best investment I ever made,” adding, “The two best investments were wedding rings.”
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That said, even Buffett acknowledged the house wasn’t his biggest financial win.
“I would have made far more money had I instead rented and used the purchase money to buy stocks,” he admitted. “For the $31,500 I paid for our house, my family and I gained 52 years of terrific memories with more to come.”
Today, Zillow estimates that home is worth around $1.44 million, which means Buffett’s unassuming gray house has appreciated more than 44 times its original price. That’s an increase of over $1.4 million on paper — not bad for a guy who still orders breakfast from McDonald’s based on how the market is doing.
Still, Buffett wasn’t trying to flip houses. Despite his empire of businesses, he’s owned only a handful of personal properties. “Would 10 homes make me more happy?” he asked at the “Becoming Warren Buffett” documentary premiere in 2017. “Possessions possess you at a point.”
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His home, built in 1921 and nestled in Omaha’s Happy Hollow enclave, spans roughly 6,570 square feet. He raised his three children there and often said he had no desire to trade it for anything else. “I’m happy there,” he told the BBC in 2009. “I’d move if I thought I’d be happier someplace else. I couldn’t imagine having a better house.”
Buffett did purchase a vacation home in Laguna Beach in 1971 for $150,000 — not exactly a splurge by billionaire standards — because his late wife Susan loved the area. He sold it for $7.9 million in 2018. He’s also invested in farmland, including a 400-acre property he bought in the 1980s for $280,000, which he valued more for its steady productivity than its curb appeal.
Despite his own housing success, Buffett’s message in the 2010 letter wasn’t about buying your “dream house.” It was about buying what you can afford.
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“A house can be a nightmare if the buyer’s eyes are bigger than his wallet and if a lender — often protected by a government guarantee — facilitates his fantasy,” he wrote. “Our country’s social goal should not be to put families into the house of their dreams, but rather to put them into a house they can afford.”
Ironically, for a man who once said he’d buy up “a couple hundred thousand single-family homes” if he could during the housing crash in 2012, Buffett has stuck with a strategy most billionaires would never consider: buying what he loves, keeping what works, and holding on for decades.
As Buffett prepares to step back from his role at Berkshire Hathaway, it’s clear he doesn’t measure wealth by how much house he has — just how much sense it made to stay.
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This article Warren Buffett Called His $31,500 Home His 3rd Best Investment After Wedding Rings — But Admitted He’d Have Made ‘Far More Money’ If He’d Rented originally appeared on Benzinga.com